Cubs newcomer Ryan Freel 'devastated' he couldn't play Saturday

Taken out of lineup as a precaution for tight hamstring

MILWAUKEE — It looked like a headline torn from the pages of The Heckler, the satirical newspaper that pokes fun at the Cubs:

"Freel joins Cubs, immediately gets hurt."

But being scratched from the starting lineup with a tight left hamstring on Saturday night was no laughing matter for Ryan Freel.

"I have a history with hamstring problems, and I didn't want to come over here and blow out a hamstring on my first day, so it was precautionary," he said.

"You have no idea how I felt. I sat in that corner of the dugout the first four innings, just trying to hide my face. I was absolutely devastated. Words can't explain how I felt. I was really upset."

Freel singled in a pinch-hit appearance Sunday but was later picked off second base.

The newest Cub also addressed rumors that he has an imaginary friend named "Farney." In a 2006 interview with the Dayton Daily News, Freel said: "He's a little guy who lives in my head who talks to me and I talk to him. That little midget in my head said, 'That was a great catch, Ryan.' I said, 'Hey, Farney, I don't know if that was you who really caught the ball, but that was pretty good if it was.'"

Freel said Sunday it was all a joke but conceded the story took on a life of its own.

"I was kind of playing with the media," he said. "Someone said, 'Who've we got today, Ryan or Farney?' I think I might have been in a bad mood one day or a couple of days because we were losing or something, and I just kept [the story] going."

So is Freel a crazy player?

"No, no, no," he said. "Well, I am crazy, but not that crazy. I've definitely got a few screws loose, but not in that sense. I'm probably a little 'spasmatic' sometimes, or high energy from one day to the next. You don't know what's going to happen with it."